Trump faked a phone call during ‘SNL’ rehearsals, cast member says

November 2015 feels so long ago, but SNL cast member Pete Davidson clearly remembers the week President Donald Trump hosted. This week he told Complex’s Peter Rosenberg about an incident that happened during a table read that, well, sounds like Trump.

“He was, like, weird all week,” Davidson said, before telling a story about Trump faking a phone call at the table read. After picking up a phone that did not appear to be ringing, Trump told the cast the big fake news: “Hey everybody, my book just went No. 1.”

Was Trump just doing a little improv to get warmed up? Probably not, though former cast member Jon Rudnitsky said in 2017 that Trump did try and fail to “riff” during his hosting gig, and that he would only do sketches “about how great he was.” Former cast member Taran Killam said last year that Trump “struggled to read” the scripts, something Davidson also mentioned in the past.

Tina Fey also recently mentioned an experience with Trump when he hosted in 2004. On David Letterman’s Netflix show My Next Guest Need No Introduction, Fey related how when they were rehearsing a Weekend Update bit in which she was wearing a pageant dress, Trump offered an unsolicited opinion: “You look very nice like that, you should dress like that more often.”

Audra Schroeder is the Daily Dot’s senior entertainment writer, and she focuses on streaming, comedy, and music. Her work has previously appeared in the Austin Chronicle, the Dallas Observer, NPR, ESPN, Bitch, and the Village Voice. She is based in Austin, Texas.